Born: 12 October 1909, Canada
Died: 29 December 1996
Country most active: Canada
Also known as: NA
Dorothy Livesay was a Canadian poet, memoirist, writing instructor and literary critic, as well as an active Communist. Following her husband’s death in 1959, she worked for UNESCO, first in Paris and then from 1960 to 1963 in Zambia, then called Northern Rhodesia.
Her many accolades include an honorary doctorate from Athabasca University (1983), Officer of the Order of Canada (1987), the Order of British Columbia (1992), the Royal Society of Canada’s Lorne Pierce Medal (1947), a Queen’s Canada Medal (1977) and the Persons Case Award for the Status of Women (1984). She also won the country’s highest poetry honor, Governor General’s Award, twice (1944 and 1947) and the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize is named for her.
Bibliography
Poetry
Green Pitcher. Toronto: Macmillan, 1928.
Signpost. Toronto: Macmillan, 1932.
Day and Night. Toronto: Ryerson, 1944 New Edition by Oolichan Books, 2011.
Poems for People. Toronto: Ryerson, 1947.
Call My People Home. Toronto: Ryerson, 1950.
New Poems. Toronto: Emblem Books, 1955.
Selected Poems, 1926-1956. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1957.
The Colour of God’s Face. 1964.
The Unquiet Bed. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1967.
The Documentaries. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1968.
Plainsongs. Fredericton, NB: Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1971.
Plainsongs Extended. Fredericton, NB: Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1971
Disasters of the Sun. Burnaby, BC: Blackfish Press, 1971.
Collected Poems: The Two Seasons. Toronto: Mcgraw-Hill Ryerson, 1972.
Nine Poems of Farewell. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 1973.
Ice Age. Erin, ON: Porcepic, 1975.
Right Hand Left Hand. Erin, ON: Porcepic, 1977.
The Raw Edges: Voices from Our Time. Winnipeg: Turnstone Press, 1981.
The Phases of Love. Toronto: Coach House, 1983.
Feeling the Worlds: New Poems. Fredericton: Goose Lane, 1984.
Beyond War: The Poetry. 1985
The Self-Completing Tree: Selected Poems. Victoria: Porcepic, 1986.
Beginnings. Winnipeg: Peguis, 1988.
The Woman I Am. Montreal: Guernica, 1991.
Archive for Our Times: Previously Uncollected and Unpublished Poems of Dorothy Livesay, Irvine Dean ed. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 1998.
Memoirs
A Winnipeg Childhood (1973)
Right hand left hand: a true life of the thirties (1977)
Journey With My Selves: A Memoir, 1909-1963 (1991)